Special Service – Victory of 21,000 Bows by Rev. Hyung Jin Nim

August 8, 2009 Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea

Hyung Jin Nim felt extreme urgency in his mind and so he wanted to complete the condition in 3 days so he increased the speed of his bowing. He started bowing without rest for 4,000 bows. After completing these, he collapsed.

Opening Prayer: by Rev. Kyle Toffey:

Heavenly Father, joyful, joyful we do adore you and we are so grateful to be gathered together here as brothers and sisters from around the world. Not just those who are here today in this one chapel, but there are brothers and sisters who are listening and participating from around the world. We join our hearts as one. And we are so thankful that we stand here at the dawn of a new day, a new age. We are especially grateful to come before you upon the victory of Hyung Jin Nim’s 21,000 bow condition. Such a sincere devotion that Hyung Jin Nim has made, and brothers and sisters around the world have participated in making this special offering. It reminds us of the sincere offering that our True Parents have made, the saints and sages have made in the past before us, and that we are standing on such a wonderful foundation.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that as we come before you today, we can come before you with a sincere heart, that when we pray today we can pray making it a sincere devotion, that when we sing and when we listen to the service today, we can participate with a sincere heart because, Heavenly Father, we know that you want to be here. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can gather together here, and we pray, Father, that we can inspire you and inspire our leaders and inspire people around the world to really come to know you the way we have come to know you. Thank you so much that we can be here today. And we pray these things together with one heart in our names as blessed brothers and sisters from around the world. Aju.

Welcoming Remarks by Rev. Michael Brazil:

So, welcome everyone to our service for August 8th, 2009. We have a great service plan for you today. So, if you are a little disappointed by not seeing the man here you want to see, don’t worry, you will see him a little later. So let’s begin by manifesting the Unification Principle symbol. Please join with me: Give-and-receive-action, the four-position-foundation, coming together: May I inherit the true love of God. As Hyung Jin Nim likes to emphasize, that symbol encompasses the Divine Principle.

Today I’d like to share with you two readings from the Cheon Seong Gyeong, Page 994:

What does it mean for you to serve with all your heart, with your entire mind, and with all your devotion? It means to offer your life. Is there anything greater than that? To devote yourself with all your heart means giving up your life. To serve with all your mind and devotion means giving up your life. Isn’t there a saying, “Sincerity moves heaven?” Is there a limit to sincerity, an end to one’s devotion? Put your life on the line and offer devotion. God will recognize the person who is ready to sacrifice his life and offer a life of devotion.

That was spoken by Father Moon back in 1971.

And let’s read one more. Cheon Seong Gyeong, Page 994:

I am not saying that you should force yourself to lay down your life if you do not want to. I am saying that you should joyfully be willing to do that. Would God want you to lay down your life if you are totally miserable doing so, or would He prefer it if, intoxicated with love, not knowing if you are to live or to die, you danced with joy while laying down your life? Which would He prefer?

This was spoken by Father Moon back in 1971.

Today is August 8th, and in Unificationism “eight” represents a new beginning and what is so amazing and so great with God is that you can have a new beginning at any time. You don’t have to wait until January 1st for a new beginning or to make new determinations or new resolutions. You don’t have to wait to the first of the month to make new determinations. If you want, you can start at 2:15 on August 8th, 2009 and make a new determination, a new beginning, a new whatever.

With God you can start anew at any time, so if you in the past week were somehow unhappy with what happened or perhaps you were unhappy with yourself – you got angry when you shouldn’t have gotten angry – you have a chance to make a new start, a new beginning. “Next time, God, I’ll do better.” That’s what is really amazing. If you come before God with real sincerity God will always accept your new beginning.

Yesterday, on August 7th, we celebrated the completion of our Senior Pastor Hyung Jin Moon’s 21,000 bow condition. Interesting, that ended on August 7th. Today is August 8th, a new beginning. And if you think about the amount of sincerity and devotion required to do that condition, where physically he suffered a lot – and I am sure he suffered spiritually as well – someone did not want him to fulfill that condition, did not make it easy for him. Last night, at our wonderful ceremony you could see his heart, his devotion, and later you will see it. We also, and our church have the opportunity to make a new start, a new beginning on August 8th, at the completion of the condition Hyung Jin Nim offered. So today I’d like you to think about it during our service, and to think about it in the week ahead, about an opportunity for us to start new – to accomplish the goals that our Senior Pastor has laid out for us, so that together, as we make a new beginning, a new start, we can accomplish incredible plans. Aju! Aju!

Meditation Practice:

All right! I’d like to start by uniting our mind, body and breath. So, if you need a little space maybe move out a little bit into the aisle (its ok), and let’s begin by taking our hands and reaching to the earth. And close your eyes and think about the support that the creation, the earth gives to us. Feel the energy and the power that comes from it. And let us breathe in and as we pass our beating heart breathe out and reach your arms to heaven. Really stretch and look upward and see God giving you His blessings, pouring out His love and His truth and beauty upon you. In breathing in we pass our beating heart and breathe out. Once again stretch your hands towards the earth. Feel the energy, the Universal Prime Energy flowing from God through the creation into each and every one of us. And as we breath in we pass our living hearts, breathe out, once again stretch, stretch upward and look upward and see God sharing His grace, showering His grace upon you, showering His hope and His believe in you. And breathing in, pass your living hearts, breathe out.

I’d like to ask you to sit down and sit at the front of your chair and let us begin the mind aspect of our exercise. We are going to begin with the visualization. So please sit straight, with your back straight and please close your eyes. I’d like for you to visualize a huge oak tree, huge roots even above the ground and growing down and this oak tree is located near a cliff. And as you look out over the cliff you see a beautiful valley, beautiful dark green trees, and beautiful light green bushes creating a tremendous harmony of the color green. And you can feel the tranquility and the peace of the environment.

You can feel a wonderful breeze blowing and you sense an incredible harmony in this environment. And as you look over to the right you see a huge hot air balloon, and this hot air balloon is coming closer and closer to you. And actually it comes right up to the cliff where you are standing. And the door opens, and it’s actually God who is piloting this hot air balloon and He welcomes you into the hot air balloon. At first you may be hesitant, but you feel the warmth, the love, the peace, and you gladly step onto and into the balloon. The door closes and you rise higher and higher. And as you look out over the valley you see again an incredible vision.

God puts the hot air balloon on auto-pilot and turns to you and takes you in His arms and tells you how much He loves you. He tells you how precious you are to Him. That you are more precious than anything else, and that He thinks of you all the time. And He asks that you let Him into your life, include Him into your daily activities. And you feel His love pouring over you, His grace showering upon you. And you, too, cannot help to share so many tears and you feel even Heavenly Father’s tears dropping on your head, tears of joy that you are there with Him, you are there to share the beauty of His creation, you are there to share the beauty of His heart.

And as you open your eyes you find yourself back on that cliff, and you see that hot air balloon flying away in the distance and God waving to you, but you feel so peaceful in your heart, so filled with love. And as you close your eyes and breathe deeply, and as you breathe in you say to yourself: “I am alive,” and as you breathe out you say: “Thank you.” As you breathe in again this time you say, “I am loved, truly, truly loved.” As you breathe out, “Thank you.” The final inhalation: As you breathe in, in your heart you say, “I am loved, truly loved,” and as you breathe out, “Thank you.”

God and our True Parents have truly blessed each person here to live a wonderful blessed life, a life by which we can inherit the true love of God and our True Parents, to become great ambassadors of love for our Heavenly Parents, to become great blessings to our husbands, wives, our children, brothers and sisters, friends, our communities, cities, nations and to the entire world. This is what God hopes for you and for me. And brothers and sisters let us once again join our hands together and manifest the unification principle once more: give- and receive-action, four-position-foundation, hands coming together. Now inherit the true love of God. Aju!

Interesting Story:

Brothers and sisters, we want to follow in the pattern of our head pastor, and he always likes to start with something interesting, as he says, a little interesting, a little funny. So last week we did not have a joke. So I thought, this week we have to have one. So to help you to understand I want to just show you quickly a slide. This is a nun’s habit. That’s what she wears on the top of her head, it’s called a habit. Now listen carefully. Six nuns were in their third floor sleeping quarters in the convent when a fire broke out one night. The nuns quickly took off their habits, tied them together to make a rope and climbed out of the window. After they were safely on the ground and standing outside of the building, a news reporter came over to one of the nuns and asked her: “Weren’t you afraid that the habits might have ripped or might have broken since they are so old?” The nuns smiled and replied: “Oh, no dear, we weren’t worried at all. Don’t you know? Old habits are hard to break!”

Special Video Presentation:

Please be seated. And we have a wonderful video to show you, but before we start the video, I would like for us to check your earphones. So everyone, please get out your earphones and let’s check to make sure they are working. Everyone ready? So let’s begin the video:

Hyung Jin Nim (in the video):

What is true love? We think of it as a great thing, but it is actually more than that, more than we think. Well, how about in comparison to Christianity? Is the true love that we think about bigger than true love that Christians profess? Is it greater? Or is it the same thing or similar? What is true love? I had a realization about this. I really understood what true love is.

(Then the Holy Bowing Ceremony begins in the video… )

Hyung Jin Nim’s Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we offer to you the Sincerity Condition of 21,000 bows. We offer to witness to 21,000 people and for the victory of the growth stage of the Unification Peace Temple. Please accept our small offering. I understood that the True Parents went to the bottom of hell for our sake. Even though we deserve punishment, they went instead of us, they gave up their holy bodies for our sake. Once, twice … seven times, they died for us seven times.

Rev Brazil:

This is how give-and-receiving-action, and four-position-foundation, let’s inherit the true love of God sounds in Korean. The song was composed by Hyung Jin Nim for his children during his 10 days offering condition.

Brothers and sisters, if you can realize the value of true love, the value of giving your life for the sake of your children, the heart that wants to die again and again for the sake of children, if you realize that we are people who received this kind of love, once we realize this, we understand that our life is not ours. Hyung Jin Nim is offering his last 21 bows together with his members. 21,000 bows – Mansei!

Hyung Jin Nim (in the video):

Victorious True Parents of Heaven and Earth, we are sorry. You have died seven times for our sake; You have died instead of us. Instead of us You went to the scary spiritual world, so that the flower of unification can bloom someday. So that we can go to the kingdom of heaven. So that we can receive salvation by the heart and true love of True Parents. But we did not realize the true value of this true love. Father, we want to inherit this true love from you and we want to return it to you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please receive our small offering, receive it completely. True Parents, please receive our small offering. Thank you. Thank you, True Parents.

Rev. Brazil:

Hyung Jin Nim is making the commemorative calligraphy that is probably going to be displayed at the growth stage Temple. This is a special seal called Naguam, for artists to mark their artwork. Thank you.

Hyung Jin Nim praying (in video):

We have received your precious true love and we received the experience of seven deaths and resurrections for the sake of the country, for the sake of the world. Allow us to become people who have inherited the victory of true love. You gave us true love through True Parents and we are grateful to you for this. Today, our Unification Church members have opened their spiritual eyes and understood the value of true love and we are going to bring this message to the world. And we are going to witness about this to the people of the world. And we are going to inherit this amazing true love. And allow us to become people who will establish the Kingdom of God, the Geon Il Guk.

Introduction of Guest Speaker by Rev. Brazil:

Brothers and sisters, we are very blessed today to have someone who shared that condition with our Senior Pastor Hyung Jin Moon come and share with us today about her experience. I would just like to briefly introduce her. Her name is Hoonsa Cho Choung In. She and her husband are part of the 777 couple blessing. They have two boys and two girls. Many of you have seen one of their daughters here many times. She is actually the lead female singer here in this choir. She is not here today.

Hoonsa Cho Choung In and her husband have been in the ministry field since 1972. And August of last year their couple was assigned here at the HQ church, and in May of this year they were appointed by Hyung Jin Nim. That is a very special classification and a very rigorous training to reach that kind of level. Since that time she and her husband have attended the 3:00 a.m. Jeong Seong with Hyung Jin Nim Moon every morning. So let’s give her a very warm welcome applause and please join me in welcoming her to the stage.

Testimony by Mrs. Hoonsa Cho Choung In:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is good to see you! You have probably gone through a lot emotionally when you watched the video. First I would like to express my gratitude to God, True Parents, and our world President, Hyung Jin Nim, who asked me to testify on the stage today. I was asked to testify about the 21,000 bow condition that took place over ten days. Although I feel limitations to express all my emotions of everything that happened during this time, I will do my best.

The decision to offer this sincerity did not come out of the blue. Hyung Jin Nim had a plan to offer 21,000 bows before entering the growth stage of the Unification Peace Temple. We thought, “Well, when is he going to start the condition?” HJN apparently made the decision to offer the sincerity after realization about the seven conditions of True Parent’s deaths. Originally he was planning to do the condition in 2 to 3 days beginning on July 29th. He came to church on the 28th and invited us, the Hoonsa families, to come to the church and stay overnight. I received the message unexpectedly and came to church. In the morning, he looked at us and asked if we were willing to accept volunteer imprisonment at the Headquarters Church until the end of the condition. This is how our condition started – at 3 a.m. in the morning.

Hyung Jin Nim felt extreme urgency in his mind and so he wanted to complete the condition in 3 days so he increased the speed of his bowing. He started bowing without rest for 4,000 bows. After completing these, he collapsed. He just couldn’t continue that day. It was decided that he should rest after completing separation from Satan based on the 4,000 bows. On the second day, we were very concerned that he would be able to continue.

He could hardly get up but started bowing. All of his body’s muscles were sore and he had cramps in his legs. He seemed really distressed. He would do 500 bows and take a rest, then another 500 and take a rest. Yeon Ah Nim put band aids on his legs and arms and massaged his body, but the pain would not go away easily. On that day he could complete only 2000 bows.

Those Hoonsas who observed this felt that we did not establish enough indemnity conditions and didn’t support Hyung Jin Nim completely. We felt really distressed because of this, just looking at what was happening to Hyung Jin Nim. We tried to help uplifting his spirit by reading from True Father’s autobiography and singing Holy Songs. We tried to give him strength through this day by day. We really wanted to take the suffering instead of Hyung Jin Nim.

Hyung Jin Nim suggested that each of the Hoonsas do 1,000 bows for their experience. We did 1,000, 2,000, even 3,000 bows to support Hyung Jin Nim. Since he was full of determination to be victorious in following the path of True Parents of seven deaths and resurrections, he took the suffering of each bow with a grateful heart. It was an excruciating experience for him. Since this was a condition to establish the victorious foundation for the 21,000 members for the Unification Peace Temple, we felt that doing each bow was more difficult than doing a regular bow.

On the third day Hyung Jin Nim felt unwell. He felt he was getting sick. He asked to not turn on the air conditioning, to close all windows and to not even use the fans, so when he was doing the bows, sweat was pouring and he lost his appetite. I could hardly hold my tears but I thought that True Parents see the suffering of their son from the spirit world. One can only imagine the degree of suffering that Yeon Ah Nim went through looking at what Hyung Jin Nim was going through. The first three days were the most difficult. Each bow was like death and resurrection. I really cannot express this experience with words. He finished the third day by doing 1,000 bows.

On the other hand, there was a lot of support from the spirit world. First, True Father came in a vision from the Cheon Bok Goong. Father’s face was beaming with a smile. The second spiritual visitation was from Young Jin Nim. He invited Hyung Jin Nim out for a pizza. So we ordered pizza and had a pizza party. Young Jin Nim apparently felt very sorry for his brother and he advised that he get some nutrients for physical support.

The third guest from the spiritual world was Heung Jin Nim. Hyung Jin Nim saw his older brother outside of the building and on that day Hoon Suk Nim, the wife of Heung Jin Nim, came to visit the World President. She bowed together with Hyung Jin Nim. Looking at his suffering and the pain in his legs he was going through, she said: “Ballerinas use a special tape when their muscles are strained to relieve the pain.” She suggested that Hyung Jin Nim use this tape. We thought: “What a great idea. Why couldn’t WE have come up with this idea ourselves?” So we quickly got the tape and gave it to Hyung Jin Nim. In the afternoon his legs were plastered with this tape all over and he seemed very happy. Looking at this, we felt that Heung Jin Nim sent Hoon Sook Nim to help his brother in the physical world and that he sent the idea of using this tape. From that moment the pain began to disappear and Hyung Jin Nim began to feel relief of the physical pain. He felt a lot of support from the spiritual world.

On the second floor of the chapel a lot of members did sincerity conditions together with Hyung Jin Nim. It was really the first time in the history of the Unification Church that so many members joined in the sincerity conditions, and when Hyung Jin Nim received a report about this he was very inspired and got a lot of support. We reported about the conditions of sincerity made by the members to Hyung Jin Nim everyday and everyday he received a lot of support from that.

Hyung Jin Nim went through extraordinary suffering. Each bow was to save the life of one person. What we have to do is to find those 21,000 people and bring them to the temple. Will you do this? Thank you!

Hyung Jin Nim never left his small room in the Head Quarters Church for the whole period of ten days. A lot of members were concerned about Hyung Jin Nim’s health and brought a lot of different kinds of food to support him. We reported about these offerings from members. He felt grateful but he would always say that we have to witness. I really felt that in that sense he is very similar to True Father. Asleep or awake he always thinks of witnessing. We can only live if we witness. We can only survive if we witness.

Hyung Jin Nim wrote three calligraphies during this ten-day period. The first one was written on August 6, after finishing 17,506 bows. The calligraphy reads: “Seven deaths and resurrection eight stages victory.” The second one was made in the temple together with all the members present after finishing the 21,000 bows. It says: “Seven deaths and resurrection eight stages victory – we will follow.” The third calligraphy was made after completion of all the ceremonies. He did it in his house. It reads: “Seven deaths and resurrection eight stages victory – thank you to True Parents.” He wrote it with his own blood. This is how he completed his offering. He showed his determination by signing with his own blood. And the sign reads: “Thank you to True Parents!” Hyung Jin Nim’s family was together with him and they finished the condition by offering a prayer.

All these things allowed us to become the citizens of Cheon Il Guk and demonstrated the meaning of true love behind the seven deaths and resurrection experience. This in turn will allow us to enter the Unification Peace Temple. Let’s give a big hand to the World President of the Unification Church. He is a living example of true love behind the experience of seven deaths and resurrection.

Closing Prayer by Rev. Brazil:

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this incredible service today where we received the video, the sermon and the message. Please help us to inherit it deeply into our hearts, help us to understand how much you want to give to us. You really want us to inherit the same heart that our True Parents have demonstrated, as we heard, so well. Help us to inherit your true heart of love that we might be willing to follow in the footsteps of our True Parents, in the footsteps of our Senior Pastor Hyung Jin Moon. Help us to make that same determination and resolve so that this sacrifice, this offering, done by Hyung Jin Nim, will not be in vain, but will be a springboard that will empower us to move forward, to reach out to your precious sons and daughters who do not yet know you, do not yet know our True Parents, do not yet know your original will and desire, that each child of yours would live well on earth and go to the Kingdom of Heaven.

But we know that that is not the reality today. So many of your sons and daughters do not know you and are not living proper lives. And then when they pass into the spirit world they go, based on their own lives, to a very horrible place which brings great suffering to your heart, which brings great anguish to you, as our True Parents once said to a person when he looked out from the hilltops of Pusan. What did he see? He saw the people who did not yet know you, Heavenly Father, who were living lives that cause you great anguish, lives that were hurting them and bringing them into hell. But they did not yet know it. And when their lives ended they had to go to great suffering themselves. How desperate he was to save them, sleeping on average two hours at night, desperate to save humanity.

We are so grateful that our Senior Pastor here, Hyung Jin Nim, has inherited that same heart, that same passion, and helps us also to inherit it, not out of duty, not out of obligation, not out of guilt but out of a heart of true filial piety. Out of a heart, Heavenly Father, that we want to liberate. We want to liberate your heart, so that you no longer have to suffer, you no longer will shed tears of sadness when you look at your children, hurting each other and killing each other, doing horrible things to each other, not knowing how much you want them to simply love each other, to live lives that will bring joy to each other and to you, which is your original ideal.

Help us, Heavenly Father, to turn your tears of sadness into tears of joy. Again we thank you so deeply. Please empower us to go forward out of this heart of service and out of love and gratitude that you have given so much to us. You have blessed us in so many ways. We are so apologetic and repentful that we have not really seen and understood. Help us to open our spiritual eyes so that we may see, so that we may be empowered to do more out of love, out of gratitude, out of joy. We thank you. We know that you want us to be joyful; you don’t want us to be sad. You want us to only know your heart of joy. And yet, Heavenly Father, we truly must know your heart of sadness, so that we can liberate it. Again we thank you and we very humbly offer and report all this to you with brothers and sisters from around the world. Aju!

Offering Prayer – Anne Inoue:

Heavenly Father…we are so grateful for what our True Parents have done and what Hyung Jin Nim is trying to do, that is to move this world one step closer to you. When Adam and Eve fell away from you, not only the connection between you and the children was lost, but also the relationship among all of your children was broken. And this world is so full of pain and suffering. Now it’s so exciting to see that Hyung Jin Nim is making such a determination and substantial plan to try to reconnect your children to each other and to you. We are so happy that we can be here together in sharing in that.

We want to take with us into our week what we have shared here together and into our days, about the growth stage Temple, and we want to determine and find in our hearts our strength to move ourselves closer to you and to each other and to reach out to the people around us that we see each day, who can all benefit from the true love that our True Parents have taught us. And we want to offer this day to you, the service and the time of the coming week to you. And I report this in my name, Anne Inoue, from a central blessed family. Aju!

Transcriber: Mrs. Thea Lepercq / Mrs. Nadya Hinson / Mrs. Regina Shin

Proofreader: Prof. Robin Debacker

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